Baked Pumpkin Donuts With Maple Syrup Frosting

If you are anything like me, I am sure you have a few extra cans of pumpkin leftover after making those pumpkin pies for the Thanksgiving feast. I have just the idea for where you can put those cans to good use and wanted to share with you my baked pumpkin donuts with a maple syrup frosting drizzle that would be a wonderful treat to indulge in while you are tackling those holiday to-do lists.

I had been dying to get a baked donut pan after seeing all of the wonderful baked donuts circulating the blogs this fall. Luckily, I had a few Swagbucks set aside and credited those towards an Amazon gift certificate to purchase them for free. I found these Norpro 6-count Nonstock Donut Pans for $12.99 each and decided to put my certificates towards two of those. If the picture above doesn’t say, “these are worth every dime,” then I don’t know what would convince you! If you don’t want to buy them for yourself though, these would make a lovely holiday gift to add to your Christmas list this year.

As a special treat after church, I have been making the family donuts to go with our Sunday paper. I mix all of the dry ingredients before we leave, or if I am running ahead of schedule, I make the batter and tuck in the fridge until we get home. We all are loving the homemade and fresh from the oven donuts. I love that these baked varieties are healthier than the fried versions. Still not healthy, but you know… healthier.

Let’s get started…

To begin making these donuts, you need to mix together the dry ingredients in one bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together all of your wet ingredients. Then just add your dry ingredients to the mixed wet ingredients, just until they are combined. I just used my little hand mixer for this quick job.

Lightly spray your donut pan with a little cooking spray. To fill the pan, you can do my lazy version or you can do it the “right way.” To do it the right way, scoop the batter into a gallon size bag and cut off the end corner to pipe the batter in. The lazy version simply requires an ice cream scoop and trying to scoop half the batter in on one side and half the batter in on the other side. Then smooth the batter on top with a butter knife. You want to fill them about 3/4’s full which worked out to be nine donuts worth. Slide them into your oven and bake them for eight to ten minutes.

After you have pulled them out, allow them to cool for a couple of minutes and then invert them on a cookie sheet with a cooling rack on top. Now it is time to make your delicious maple syrup drizzle to make these even more delicious.

Here we go, it’s time to mix up your maple syrup frosting drizzle for the tops. It sounds fancier than it really is- you just mix up some confectioner’s sugar, milk, and a little maple syrup to make your frosting. It makes a ton of frosting so it is up to you how much frosting you want to add to your donuts.

Now it is time to frost your donuts. I just grabbed a spoon and drizzled the frosting in a back and forth motion over my donuts. You could also dunk the tops in the frosting and then allow the icing to harden or you could skip the frosting altogether and just enjoy them with a light dusting of confectioner’s sugar. I highly recommend the frosting though, it really adds a little sparkle and an extra bit of delicious to your donuts.

Now you can eat your donuts. These are flavorful and almost like a glass of wine, you can taste all the different flavors as you eat them. You can taste the hints of cinnamon and nutmeg, the rich pumpkin flavor, and then that maple syrup sweetness from the light glaze drizzle. The texture is different than a fried donut and more like a muffin or a good piece of cake. They are not overly sweet though and the pumpkin really seems to add a savory quality to these.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease two doughnut pans. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.In another medium bowl, cream together the brown sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs one at a time, and then the vanilla extract, milk, and pumpkin puree. Gradually beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until combined. Fill each doughnut mold 3/4’s full with batter. Bake 8-10 minutes or until the doughnuts spring back when touched. Remove from the pan and cool completely.

For the maple syrup glaze: In a small bowl, combine confectioners’ sugar, maple syrup and milk; stir well. Add additional milk, if needed, to reach desired consistency. Drizzle over donuts.

Serve with big mugs of coffee or milk for dunking. Expect praise and wild applause from your family members.

Published November 29, 2010 by:

Amy Allen Clark is the founder of MomAdvice.com. You can read all about her here.